Mojo - August 2007

TAPPED has had their finger on an important aspect of the presidential campaigns.

Obama, we're told, only recently started to show some substance. Yet, by this standard, every major Republican candidate is about as substantial as tissue paper in a tornado. I'm not the first to notice this, but I was still taken aback by just how little Republicans seem to care about even appearing as if they have any ideas when I started poking around their websites.

Basically, the Republicans duck every significant issue, from Iraq to healthcare. When Democrats stop bashing Bush and turn their attention to their Republican counterparts, they'll have lots of material to work with. For more details (or lack thereof) see this post.

Outspoken Princeton professor, decorated scholar, and bestselling author Cornel West recently released a political hip-hop album that features songs about topics like September 11th, racial profiling, the "N" word, and the Bush administration. It's no wonder that Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations has been slugged "Edutainment to the fullest."

With a spoken word delivery backed by hip-hop beats, West reminds me of Gil Scott-Heron, a political spoken word artist from the 60s and 70s. Similar to Scott-Heron and also the 70s spoken word group the Last Poets, West's CD skewers our nation's political and ethical choices through music. But with guests like Prince, Andre 3000, Black Thought, Talib Kweli, and KRS-One, this album has a more current sound.

In an NPR interview about the CD, West explained that "A paradigm shift is taking place in hip hop. It's going back to the best of the tradition, by connecting with young folk In the end it's about dignity and respect." And I think 2007 is ripe for it.

The DNC just gave a presentation on framing and messaging here at YearlyKos. It began by comparing a Republican campaign ad in which Bush (running for pres. in 2004) appeals to Latinos — no mention of legislation, just talk of values, faith, personal responsibility, wealth, patriotism, and so on. Soaring music, flags waving, children with their grandparents, you know the drill. That was followed by a New Democrat Institute ad that says 12 million Latinos have no health insurance and a Democratic plan would cover 8 million of them, all spliced with rapid fire shots of Latinos in America. Everyone immediately jumped all over the Democratic ad, which was the point. George Lakoff, king of framing, sitting in the audience, gave it a thumbs down.

The point the DNC made is that the average American thinks about politics for 5 minutes a month. Why appeal to them through the mind, as we have customarily done? Instead, mimic the Republican approach of appealing through the heart. Policy, which is on the forefront for Dems, should be secondary to values.

Okay, maybe. But this sort of thinking usually comes hand in hand with a second critique, one the DNC kind of made today: the Democrats have no ideas. Or if they do have ideas, they don't know what truly animates them.

It's surprising to still hear this. This was the idea that everyone pushed from 2002-2005: Democrats don't know what they stand for, blah blah blah. It all ended in 2006 when the Democrats took both houses of Congress. The missed message of that election, I believe, was that Democrats didn't have a better frame than the GOP, didn't suddenly discover what they stood for, didn't have new ideas.

In case you haven't checked it out yet, our current issue contains a feature about the dire lack of medical facilities and staff in Afghanistan. The story chronicles the experiences of a doctor working in a military base hospital. The author also visits Red Cross-assisted Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar City and comments on the complications its staff encounters in attempting to provide care to Afghan soldiers and civilians.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, to which copies of the issue were delivered, released in a statement this week news that it has reached an agreement with the Afghan government "under which the ICRC will significantly increase its support for Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar, one of the most important medical facilities in the conflict-ridden southern part of the country." The ICRC emailed Mother Jones to let us know of its pledge to "improve the overall quality of health care and the performance of hospital staff" at Mirwais for at least the next two years.

Recently a Michigan friend wrote me of her concerns about Detroit's flagging auto industry and its impact on her family and friends:

Jobs are few and far between, and those that have jobs constantly worry about keeping them. Every time there is a layoff at GM, Ford, or Chrysler, it's another set back for the city. People panic. Our state has been rooted in manufacturing and automobiles for so long that it's hard to imagine losing that identity. Somehow, U.S. automakers are losing ground to foreign car companies. Toyota is just about ready to take over as the number one auto manufacturer, which would put GM in the number two spot. How does this happen?

Well, this morning's Washington Postbrings news that foreign manufacturers have officially surpassed Detroit. They grabbed more than 50 percent of the U.S. market share for the month of July—the first time foreign companies have done so. GM's sales dropped 22.4 percent compared with a year ago. It remains the country's biggest automaker (in terms of the number of cars sold), but is feeling increased heat from Toyota, which now occupies the number two spot, ahead of Ford and Chrysler.

So, how does this happen? According to U.S. automakers and industry analysts quoted in the article, the housing market is to blame; falling home values have caused many people to hold off on making large purchases. Analysts also blame decisions at GM and Ford to scale back their sales to rental car companies, a practice that yields little profit, but which has traditionally padded Detroit's sale numbers.

Receding market share for U.S. companies may turn out to be a boon to consumers. As automakers seek to make up the difference in sales, a price war is looming. GM has threatened that it will begin aggressively discounting its pick-up trucks. As the company's chief market strategist told the Post, "If you have everybody throwing hand grenades at you, you have to respond."

Of course, automakers will almost certainly be forced to cut costs, compounding the pain of American workers. According to the Post:

If the market doesn't pick up, the sales slowdown will continue to complicate the financial outlook for carmakers. The three Detroit auto companies are waging cost-cutting campaigns. They've closed plants, cut jobs and sold off some of their best assets.

"There is no question there has been a tremendous change in the market over a long number of years," said Dana Johnson, chief economist of Comerica bank. "What the numbers tell you is that consumers have more, and more learned to prefer foreign cars."

Japanese automakers have been much healthier. They enjoy lower U.S. labor costs, positive foreign exchange rates and more popular product lines.

Toyota's Lexus brand sold 27,141 in July -- nearly double the sales of Ford's entire European luxury line from Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover.

I'm at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, a literal wonderland for political junkies of the left-leaning, internet-savvy type. The next three days will be packed with seminars called things like, "Outfoxing Fox," "Mock Iowa Caucus," "Creating a Culture of Grassroots Giving," "The Art of the Killer Campaign Ad," and on and on. Liberal bloggers and internet gurus (and those seeking to court both groups) will be all over the McCormick Center on the shores of Lake Michigan.

I'll have all the facts and all the color. According to a convention organizer, the convention is "sold out" at 1,500 attendees, with 250 credential press members from 200 outlets. But only one, I can assure you, forgot his pen on the first morning — that's the kind of quality work you can expect here on MoJoBlog.

We're off to slow start, though. The first event I'm attending, "Holding Congress Accountable for a Progressive Agenda," is in a massive room with over 300 seats. Just under 50 people are here. But such luminaries as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, and Nancy Pelosi are scheduled to make appearances later, so things should pick up. The weather is here, wish you were beautiful!

This evening's collapse of the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis remains unexplained, but it's clear from the pictures that the damage is horrendous.

The major artery between Minneapolis and St. Paul, crossing 1,000 feet of the Mississippi River, came down in three sections, dropping 60 feet into the water, part of it onto a freight train passing along the banks. It was during rush hour, around 6pm, though reports have the number of cars that fell into the water at only 50. Thus far the death toll is at 7, with 38 injured.

The bridge was being repaired at the time of the collapse, but what exactly caused 1,000 feet of steel and concrete to calve in three is unclear. A civil engineering study at the University of Minnesota in 2001 found that the bridge's steel girders were "susceptible to fatigue cracking." Still, more recent studies found that the bridge did not need replacing.

Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty called the collapse a "catastrophe of historic proportions" and Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak said that he was concerned that it could "be a very tragic night when this is over."

Exactly two years ago, Mark Crispin Miller, writing for Harper's, presented a highly detailed and shocking report of the presidential election shenanigans that took place in Ohio in 2004. There is no way anyone can read this collection of facts and still believe that the election in Ohio was honest. Everything from violation of Ohio's own election laws to destruction of ballots to intimidation of voters is clearly documented.

The news media, however, paid little attention to Miller's report, and the Democratic Party paid even less attention to it. Almost a year later, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a similar story for Rolling Stone, and for some reason, liberals paid more attention to that piece, in most cases, behaving as though the Miller story had never seen the light of day. But in no time at all, even the Kennedy story faded away.

Earlier this week, Steven Rosenfeld, writing for AlterNet, reports:

Two-thirds of Ohio counties have destroyed or lost their 2004 presidential ballots and related election records, according to letters from county election officials to the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner.

The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.

Former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell was sued in 2006 by a community organization in Columbus for allegedly conspiring to prevent African Americans from voting in the 2004 election. The current secretary of state is Jennifer Brunner, the woman who discovered the missing records in the spring.

Though it is unlikely that anyone will be able to prove that the records were intentionally destroyed, there has been a clear pattern of obstruction, evasion and lawlessness in the Ohio election Republican community. Possibly the worst part of this story, however, is that hardly anyone will even learn about the destroyed records, and even fewer will care.

U.S. officials, who I'm sure are eager to present an image of an America different from the footage of soldiers fighting insurgents in Iraq, recently sent the Grammy-winning band to Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia on a U.S. State Department grant. Their trip included visits to orphanages, schools, and community centers. They also hosted master classes and music workshops.